The Dugan Indian Feud, Fannin County, Texas

In 1835, Daniel Dugan with
his wife and a family consisting of five sons and four daughters,
moved to this county, and settled in that portion which is now a
part of Grayson County. His boys and girls grew up to be fine
specimens of man and womanhood, and coming face to face with
frontier life in all its phases; they became western men and women
of the true type. In 1843, at the old homestead, where H. P. Dugan
now resides, occurred the first act that caused the deadly feud
between the Indians and the Dugan family.

Mr. Dugan denies the truth of the exaggerated stories of heroism and
tragic deeds of his family, and when asked for the facts connected
with their trouble with the Indians, he modestly gave them to the
writer in a plain matter-of-fact style.

After the year 1835, the people in this portion of the county were
never troubled with the Commanches and other warring tribes, because
the country west of us had become so thickly settled as to drive
them back. But it was the Coushattas, the Shawnees, and renegades of
the other tribes north of 'us, who did the mischief, and they were
actuated solely by a desire to murder and plunder It was this class
of Indians who lived just across the river, that were the principals
in the act before referred to. Then, as now, a great many young men
were leaving their homes in the other states to try their fortunes
in the southwest; several of these were making their home with
"Uncle Dan," at the time these renegade Indians undertook to
exterminate him and hie family. The Indians numbered about fifteen.
They crept up to the old log house at night, when all the inmates
were sleeping as soundly as only hard working people can sleep. The
door was gently opened, revealing to the eager eyes of the redskins,
H. P, Dugan and two other young men in one bed, and across the room
was another bed occupied by one of the Dugan boys and another young
man. The Indians stopped in the door, and one of them fired through
the crack next to the hinges, killing instantly one of the young men
and wounding another, but did not hit the third, who was H. P.
Dugan. Simultaneously with this firing, other Indians were emptying
their guns into the other bed. George Dugan was killed outright and
his bed fellow, under a heavy fire, arose and made for the Indians.
He rushed on them and thrust them bodily out of the door, and shut
it in their faces they firing all the time, but strange to say, he
was never scratched. In the meanwhile, "old Uncle Dan," who was
sleeping in another little house so built as to form an L, with the
first, had his trusty piece, and was making it warm for the Indians
on the outside. They doggedly retreated, towards the barn, where
another one of the Dugan boys and a young man were sleeping in the
loft. Here they met a warm reception, and two of them were left in a
condition to tell no tales. When they were driven back from both
places, they never came any more except to get their dead, of which
there were three, and one wounded. In trying to get one of those who
were killed at the barn, a fourth of their number was left on the"
ground.

The balance of this band, remained in the county until the following
Sunday, when they attempted to murder and rob old man Kitchen and
his family. Here again they were defeated. The old man and his son
were slightly wounded. After this foul murder of their brother, it
was only natural that the blood of the Dugan boys should be fired
against everything in the shape of an Indian forever afterwards.
Some time after this, at a term of court, held at Warren, an Indian,
maddened by whiskey, and perhaps other causes, drove an arrow
through one man, and shot another through the clothing of a man
named Scott, but before he could adjust his third arrow, Scott shot
a ball through him. The Indian lay there some time, and a discussion
arose about Indian anatomy. To settle it, one of the Dugan boys, who
to be sure had no love for the tribe, took an axe and opened the
corps, from the throat down. The Indians over in the Nation heard of
this, and they registered vows for revenge against the Dugan.
Several years later a party of prospectors were caught up in the
Territory, and one of their number was taken by their captors for a
Dugan, and he narrowly escaped with his life. The vow to exterminate
the Dugans, so their friends in the Nation inform them is still
extant, and furnishes additional proof that "Indians never forget or
forgive."

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